1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of time division multiplexed switching, particularly in a computerized branch exchange.
2. Prior Art
There are many commercially available computerized branch exchanges used for the switching of voice signals, and in some cases, also data signals. Most often, the voice signals are digitized and switched over a common time division multiplexed (TDM) bus. A serial bit stream is, for instance, transferred between two lines over the bus in a particular time slot. In another commercially available computerized branch exchange, the data bits are transferred in parallel on a directional bus between lines.
There are both practical and theoretical limitations to the available bandwidth attainable for a given bus, and consequently, there are limitations on the number of calls or other exchanges that can be made over the bus. The present invention deals with the expansion of this bandwidth in a branch exchange bus. Set forth later in this application (in conjunction with FIG. 1) there is a discussion of a prior art computerized branch exchange which is commercially available from ROLM Corporation. The problems associated with the expansion of bandwidth for the architecture of that exchange is disclosed.